Road Outta Hell
by JustAnotherPseudonym
Summary: It was a long road out of Hell or Hellmouth as the case may be, but it's still a longer road out of the Hell of figuring out and accepting one's own happiness. Femslash.
1. Prologue

Road Outta Hell

By: JustAnotherPseudonym

Rating: M for the language, violence etc. etc.

Disclaimer: I own none of the BTVS characters, never have and probably never will. This is femslashy by the by so if you don't like it that sort of thing then don't read that sort of thing, which this does include that sort of thing.

Prologue

It had been late and she probably should have been back at home trying to work things out in her life, but instead she decided to go to a bar and get drunk. It wasn't something she did often and not anything she would make a habit of but perhaps that one time she really needed to pretend that she wasn't Buffy Summers anymore.

Not being Buffy anymore, she thought, would make her life a lot easier. There wouldn't have been people that surrounded her asking her what they should do now with their lives like she was some goddamn all-knowing god. She wanted to start making a life for herself and leave the other one buried with the rubble of what used to be a small town called Sunnydale.

All potential Slayers were made actual Slayers and they still had turned to Buffy to answer their questions and solve their problems, lacking all signs of understanding the definition of autonomy. Faith had stuck around just long enough for her to become uncomfortable with the situation then decided to bail so that she could figure out the own shit that had been going on in her life. She had given Buffy a cell phone number where she could be reached but Buffy had yet to dial the number.

She hadn't thought there was anything left to say to her fellow Slayer. They had apologized for what they felt the need to apologize for and put whatever water that was left under the bridge, in a matter of speaking. It hadn't made sense to them to start fighting over the past again after the newest biggest baddest evil had been put to rest, for the time being.

Things hadn't been completely resolved with them, there was still a word or two or sentence or three that they held back on sharing with each other. But they needed to keep things casual, couldn't risk getting too involved since neither of them were sure about anything in their lives anymore. They understood that some things just needed to be left unsaid because despite the fact that either of them could die at any moment, it still wasn't the right time for them to get involved in something that would ruin the truce they had forged.

Buffy even reasoned that she couldn't possibly try and get to know this 'new' Faith. It didn't make sense to do something like that when Buffy was still trying to figure out who the 'new' Buffy was. Apparently, however, the new Buffy had been a drinker, a light weight drinker but still a drinker nonetheless. It wasn't as important for her to stay within full control of her faculties; it wasn't like she was the only operable slayer anymore. Someone else could have finally taken care of the big baddies and she could sit in a dark danky bar and drink alcohol to her hearts content.

Now if the damn bartender would have just given her another drink instead of telling her that she had had enough perhaps things would have turned out a little differently. "What do you mean enough?" Buffy had slurred into the face of the woman who for the last two minutes had adamantly denied the slayer another drink.

The bartender had taken a step back to regain some of her personal space that Buffy had kept from respecting. "The only drink you're getting from me is a bottle of water, lady."

"I'll take it," Buffy was just drunk enough to think that she had actually accomplished breaking the bartender's resolve. A sloppy grin had covered her face and she sat back down in her battered wooden barstool.

"Coming right up," the bartender had shaken her head at Buffy's supposed victory and moved to get the woman a bottle of water hoping that it'd sober the blonde up a little.

Twenty minutes later Buffy had finished her bottle of water and had sobered up a little, not much but still enough to realize that she wasn't much of a drinker after all. Instead, she was a sad and pathetic woman who was homeless, jobless, and loveless. Upon this realization, Buffy had reached into the front pocket of her jeans and pulled out the slip of paper she carried with her in case of emergencies. She stared at it until the writing on it went into a fuzzy, blurry line of black.

Her hand had gone back to her pocket and she pulled out her cell phone and she read the numbers on the paper again through the fuzzy blur and started to dial the number into her phone. It rang three times before the ringing stopped and Faith's voice answered on the other end. Somehow she already knew it was Buffy calling her and thought it best she keep her silence until Buffy decided to say something over the loud music and louder voices that were sounding through the earpiece of the phone.

"Where are you?" Buffy had finally asked still drunk enough so that she didn't hang up immediately when the ringing stopped.

"North Dakota if you can fuckin' believe it." Faith had answered immediately, keeping her tone semi-neutral and semi-friendly.

"I'm a little drunk," she didn't quite know why she felt the need to share that information but let her mouth do the talking instead of her brain. Buffy was illogically angry at her brain at that moment. She blamed it for most of her past and present problems.

Faith smiled internally. "B, you sound a lil' drunk."

"Okay," Buffy's new sadness at her current state in life had been revealed in that single drunken laced word. "I think I'm going to go now."

"I'll see ya when you get here, B." Faith had known that Buffy would only call when she was ready to join her as she wandered across the country. They had briefly talked of leaving together but it was never serious because Buffy still had felt a weight of responsibility and she wasn't ready to be talked into letting go of it at that time. It had taken nearly a year, but Buffy had called her like Faith knew she eventually would, or at least she had talked herself into believing would happen.

That's why she had left Buffy alone in the first place. She wanted to give them each some time to sort some stuff out, but ultimately she wanted Buffy to come to her and leave everyone who clawed for her attention behind. When Buffy wanted and was ready to walk away from everything, Faith wanted Buffy to walk away to her. Maybe it was a little stupid and a lot of fantasy but Buffy had given Faith her wish in the end. Buffy had let everyone take care of themselves for once and tried something new, like grabbing hold of her own happiness.

It was a new era for the last two naturally manifested slayers as was painfully obvious to when Buffy did leave everyone behind to meet Faith in North Dakota in the middle of winter leaving all of her current possessions behind. Buffy had just got on the earliest flight she could find heading out to a North Dakota city or town. It didn't necessarily matter to her whether the city or town was close to where Faith was staying.

They stayed together in a motel, that lacked certain sanitary standards, talking mostly with some fighting thrown in for good measure. There was nothing out in the open air to fight or slay since it was one of the coldest winters in recorded history. Plus, since the hellmouth had been closed in Sunnydale evil was taking a nap so that it could get back up on its feet to cause havoc and mayhem again at full strength.

Neither Faith nor Buffy had thought they had much left to fight about, but apparently they did since they were both well-practiced in denying their emotions. One thing they quickly realized was that it was true that they were vastly different in some areas, but when it came down to the inner most cores of their beings they weren't so different after all.

It was true in their case that opposites attracted but it was the similarities, the sameness, that allowed them to get past all the repressed emotion and look towards a future where it was possible for them to finally become what they had always been destined to be: friends, lovers, and partners.

So at the end of the one of the longest and harshest winters recorded in history, Buffy Summers and Faith Doss worked out their shared and mutual problems and decided they would be together until they died. It was sort of romantic in a completely out of the norm way of being romantic, especially since they had managed to beat each other up more than once.

They soon left North Dakota as soon as the snow melted enough to let people travel and moved to a small town in New Mexico where they decided to start planting some roots and make a life for themselves that didn't center around killing demons and vampires and evil things—although there were still plenty to kill—and instead centered around doing things with their lives that made them happy. It wouldn't be easy for them, because it is, and always has been, a very long road out of Hell and consequently a very hard road as a slayer, but they were determined. Unfortunately, there were other powers that were just as determined as Faith and Buffy to make sure that the currently oldest slayers were never happy, never content, and absolutely positively never afflicted with the horrid experience of accomplishing anything akin to 'normal'.

To be continued…possibly if I feel like it.


	2. Chapter 1

**Previous chapter contains all disclaimers**

Chapter 1

Buffy and Faith had gotten an apartment in a small city in northern New Mexico and quickly learned that it wasn't a place that lacked weird happenings. For the most part, the locals kept their silence about the things that went bump in the night until they learned from an old Navajo woman that the two slayers weren't like the other White people that came through their lands laughing at their legends. The woman believed that the two could be trusted to know about the evil that walked among them.

Immediately after the old woman's blessing had been given, Buffy and Faith were recruited to handle some of the goings on that happened under the cover of the night in the middle of the desert they had found themselves in. The slaying wasn't particularly difficult for them, but with the support of most of the city they didn't have to worry about keeping things under wraps. They were given free reign of the city and allowed to take whatever they needed to help them in their mission to keep the city safe. The mayor had even provided them with a small two bedroom house in a show of appreciation for their services.

The city reminded them both of Sunnydale except the people didn't act as clueless and there wasn't a hellmouth nearby. The dark magic that kept to the area was just ancient evil that had found its home and wasn't keen on leaving it. The people were used to its presence and respected the powers they knew they had no business messing with.

There were still vampires and werewolves and demons, but they weren't the same as the ones Buffy and Faith had run into back in California. They weren't as concerned with taking over the world and filling it with their evil ways. The big baddies were only concerned with feeding off of the part of the human population that was stupid enough to get in their way and accruing only enough power to continue their own existence.

This is why when Buffy and Faith went on patrol and ran into a vampire that started yelling about the coming of a great and powerful evil they were admittedly concerned. Vampires weren't often good for much, but they could at least be trusted for the information they gave out about the coming of evil. They were just reliable in that way. Perhaps it was their arrogance they were unable to squelch despite the fact they were about to be staked and consequently killed.

After the vampires ranting, Faith and Buffy raised their guard. More vampires tried to attack them, as vampires are wont to do, and the two slayers fell into an easy rhythm. Perhaps the rhythm was too easy because Buffy ended up stabbing a seemingly mortal woman in the chest with her stake as the woman came up behind her. She was evil, both Faith and Buffy could feel that, but she didn't look supernaturally evil so Buffy started to panic.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Buffy yelled as she reached for the stake that was embedded in the woman's chest. Faith stood behind Buffy having an interesting zone out moment full of déjà vu quality. Before Buffy could get her hand firmly around the stake, however, the woman's eyes popped back open and she stood up and pulled the stake out herself.

"What the fuck was that for?" the woman yelled at Buffy. "You can't just go around stabbing people like that."

"You died!" Buffy told the woman.

"And you're obviously not a natural blonde," the woman replied. "Do you have a point?" She threw the stake back at Buffy who easily caught it.

The woman's comment brought Faith out of the zone of her past memories and she smirked slightly. "It's natural," she couldn't help but say which earned her annoyed looks from both Buffy and the stranger.

"Who the fuck are you?" The woman asked Faith.

"Who the fuck are you?" Faith asked back.

"I asked first." The woman answered.

"So?" Faith replied.

"You're the ones that fucking stabbed me in the fucking heart! That's 'so'." The woman yelled her arms motioning wildly between pointing at Faith and Buffy.

Faith shrugged in a 'whatever' type gesture. "It didn't hurtcha."

"Not the point, smartass." The woman took a step closer to Faith. "You still stabbed me."

"But you're okay," Buffy said. "And it's good you're okay because I thought I had just killed someone."

The woman's head swung around and her dark eyes quickly focused back on Buffy. "What makes you think you didn't?"

Buffy opened her mouth to reply but she wasn't quite sure what she should say. As far she could tell the woman had died, but just didn't stay that way.

The woman grinned at Buffy's silence. "I didn't think you'd have anything to say." She took in a deep breath then slowly released it. "Doesn't really matter though," she smiled at Buffy. "It didn't really hurt and no permanent harm was done." She let out a soft chuckle. "Truth is I just like fuckin' with you slayer types. So damn easy. You're all so serious all the damn time like every week you're saving the world from ultimate destruction or somethin'."

"What!" Buffy asked angrily. "You wanted me to stake you." Her fist clenched and she had the sudden urge to punch the woman standing next to her. "Because if you did it was a really unfunny joke."

The woman's eyes narrowed and she lowered her gaze to Buffy's clenched fist. "Let's not fight."

"What do you want?" Faith stepped closer to Buffy just in case the stranger decided to attack. She still felt that evil coming off of the woman in waves and didn't want to chance Buffy being attacked.

"All joking aside," a smile returned to the woman's face, "I'm really here to help out with a very cliché situation." She took a deep breath. "There's a big evil that has taken a liking to your territory and it, of course, wants to take over the world starting with this small desert city."

"Are you the evil?" Buffy asked not being completely sarcastic.

"No." the woman shook her head. "It's my mother. I suspect it's going to be one of those epic battles: mother versus daughter, blood versus blood, all that sort of thing. My mother is an evil type goddess and since I am her daughter I carry a little bit of that evil vibe as well, which is probably why you stabbed me, Buffy. You felt the evil sneaking up behind you."

"Why should we believe you?" Buffy finally unclenched her fist.

"I don't know," the woman said softly. "Usually no one believes me until my mother starts killing people. I can just hang out with you until that starts to happen."

"I don't want you to stay anywhere near us," Buffy was quick to reply.

The woman nodded her head once. "Okay, I'm sorry about the stabbing thing, although technically you were the one that stabbed me, but let's start over shall we?" She rubbed her hands on the front of her jeans then clasped them together behind her back. "My name is Zandaleigh. My mother's name is Thema. She's one of the lesser gods, but is still quite powerful, and like a good portion of evil entities she wants more power to control the Earth. She and I had a falling out a few thousand years ago because I don't agree with her continuous massacring of Humans and she doesn't like that I'm not 'evil' enough. So for a very long time now, I've been traveling around the world stopping her from reaching her nefarious goals. Questions?" She turned from Buffy to Faith and back again.

"If your mother's a god or whatever then wouldn't that make you a god too? And if you're a god then why do you need our help?" Faith was nowhere close to believing the woman's story.

"Me?" the woman pointed to her own chest. "A god?" her hand fell from her chest and she chuckled ruefully. "Not quite. A few centuries ago I gave up most of my powers to keep my mother from sinking Australia. The only vestiges of my godhood that remain are mostly physical attributes, like my immortality, which has already been exhibited."

"Why do you need our help?" Buffy repeated Faith's question.

"I'm not a big fan of prophecies. Often, they get in my way by irritatingly being proven correct." Zandaleigh sounded more than a little annoyed. "So there's this stupid prophecy flying around saying that only a slayer that has been to Heaven can kill my mother and the daughter born from my mother's flesh cannot." Zandaleigh's fists clenched. "I want my mother dead, Buffy, completely dead. I don't want to bury her under a mountain to trap her. I don't want to lure her into a lava pit to hold her for a few years. I don't want to try to drown her in the deepest oceans. I want her dead and every prophecy I've gotten my hands on says you're the only one that can kill her, and I really want her dead. Believe me when I say, that I would have performed matricide a long time ago if I could, but I can't. I can slow her down and ruin some of her plans but I can't kill her."

Perhaps it was the intense anger that was radiating off of the former goddess that made Buffy believe what the woman was saying. "How did you find me?"

"The leftovers of my godhood. I could feel it when you came back a lot of," Zandaleigh locked eyes with Faith, "people felt it when you came back, Buffy." Her attention went back to the older slayer. "On the totem pole of supernaturals slayers aren't too close to the top. In the past, not a lot of us gods paid any attention to them, but you've made an impression. They've taken notice of both of you, actually, and that witch of yours. What's her name? Waldo? Willa? Wilma?"

"Willow." The slayers replied at the same time.

"Yes," Zandaleigh nodded. "Of course, Willow. If you're still in contact with her then I'd call her up and let her know that there are a few," she waved her right hand in the air aimlessly, "things out there that are planning to drain her of all her powers and kill her. Or is it enslave her? I don't really remember all these things. I've been preoccupied with killing my mother, you understand."

Buffy's eyes widened. "Willow's in danger?"

"From what I understand your friend Willa is a very powerful witch and you shouldn't be worried too much." Zandaleigh's hand scratched her chin. "Or I wouldn't be too worried yet. Although right now I'm sure your friend, Wilbur will be just fine." Buffy opened her mouth to tell the former goddess Willow's name again but didn't get a chance to say anything since Zandaleigh quickly started talking again. "If you help me kill my mother then I'll even help you defend your friend Wynona when Mommy is good and dead. It's a good deal, yes?"

Buffy's eyes turned to Faith's and they looked at each other for a long moment then Faith told Zandaleigh that they would help her but that the goddess first had to give, "Red the heads up on what's after her". Zandaleigh quickly agreed and then followed the slayers back to their home where she quickly found the nearest soft surface and collapsed on it. Obviously one of the human qualities the former goddess had picked up when she gave up some of her power was the need to sleep, and as Zandaleigh was snoring away in Buffy and Faith's spare room they stayed up well into the night.

"I don't trust her," Buffy admitted as she snuggled closer into Faith's body on the couch in their living room. "I kinda trust her, but mostly I don't trust her. I haven't had good luck with gods."

Mostly used to Buffy's odd speech Faith nodded her agreement. "Me either."

"She's a little…odd too."

Faith nodded again. "I'd say crazy."

"Do you think she really is crazy?" Buffy was worried. She had faced a crazy god before and it ended with her dying in a very dramatic way.

"She's probably not Glory crazy. She's a different crazy, y'now?"

"Like Warren and those nerd-freak-capades?"

Faith turned and looked down at the woman in her arms, "Maybe."

"Damn it! They almost killed me too."

Faith leaned down and kissed Buffy briefly on the lips. "Don't worry B," she whispered as she pulled away. "I'll kill her if she tries somethin'." That's the sort of thing that's a lot easier said then done, and they both knew that but Buffy felt better for Faith saying it and Faith felt better from having said it. They continued to sit alone in their living room until they were at least confident enough that Zandaleigh was going to continue sleeping like the dead and nothing like the undead.

To be continued…

**Author's Note: **I think it's obvious this isn't a completely dramatic piece of literature, but don't be fooled. Drama can be expected as well. Your reviews and comments are welcomed.


	3. Chapter 2

**All disclaimers in Chapter 1**

Chapter 2

Buffy was dreaming of making love to Faith. Her concsious mind knew that perhaps her dream wasn't completely a dream and that realization forced Buffy's eyes open. Faith's hands were running up her torso and the younger Slayer's left hand rubbed over Buffy's breast.

"Good morning," Faith muttered as she realized Buffy's eyes were open.

Buffy returned the greeting with a grunt of her own, certainly more awake than she had been a few moments before but still unable to process complex thoughts. Her breath was coming in quick gasps and the feel of Faith's hand running over her body being trailed by Faith's mouth was doing nothing to help Buffy's cognitive abilities. Her nails dug into Faith's back and she started to mutter a series of "I love you" s to her lover but they were rudely interrupted when Zandaleigh opened the locked bedroom door yawning out a barely understandable "Mornin' horny Slayers."

Faith growled and pulled away from Buffy's body pulling the sheet on the bed back up to cover her lover's body. She didn't appreciate the way Zandaleigh's crimson right eye and amethyst left eye was devouring Buffy's exposed flesh. "Get out," she told their unwanted guest.

Zandaleigh found a wall to lean against. "Don't stop on my account," her hands went above her head and she started to stretch out her back. "I enjoy a good show just as much as you do," she winked at Faith which was enough to drive the frustrated Slayer to reach under the bed she shared with Buffy and pull out one of the knives they kept there. Zandaleigh stopped stretching. Her hands went in the front pockets of her jeans. "You gonna use that, Slayer?" she challenged.

"Faith, don't." Buffy said as she self-concsiously pulled the sheet further up her body.

"It won't hurt her," Faith whined.

"Throw it, Slayer." Zandaleigh challenged again with a smile on her face.

"Faith," Buffy put her hand not busy with holding up the sheet covering her on Faith's thigh. "We can't kill her every time she's annoying us."

"Yes we can."

Zandaleigh took her right hand out of her pocket and pointed at Buffy's body. "You cold, Buffy? I can see through the sheet."

That was enough of an incentive for Faith to throw the knife at Zandaleigh's right shoulder. It pierced the former goddess's flesh easily and blood quickly started to flow from the wound. Zandaleigh looked down at her shoulder and put her hand on the knife sticking out of it. "Damn."

"Faith!" Buffy yelled and rushed over to Zandaleigh who was slowly sliding down their bedroom wall. Zandaleigh started to cough and her breath was coming in gasps. Buffy managed to catch Zandaleigh before she hit the ground.

"Was that knife pure silver?" Zandaleigh asked through her coughs. "Please say no."

"Shit!" Faith jumped off the bed and moved over to Zandaleigh. "I thought you were fuckin' immortal."

"I'm allergic to pure silver, dumbass." Zandaleigh started coughing out blood.

"What do we need to do?" Buffy pulled out the knife then immediately applied pressure to Zandaleigh's wounded shoulder.

"Nothing," Zandaleigh's eyes started to close and her breathing stopped.

"Fuck!" Faith's hands ran through her hair. "We have to save her."

Zandaleigh's body twitched and her hands reached out and grabbed onto Buffy's shoulders. "Fuck me," she used Buffy's body to push herself into a sitting position. "You can't just go around throwing knives at people," she told Faith as she stood up and experimentally flexed her formerly injured shoulder. "I thought you would have learned your lesson by now." She looked down her body at her ruined shirt. "My shirt's fucked." She took it off exposing her nude torso to the mildly stunned Slayers.

"You're not dead," Buffy stated.

"When will you two learn?" Zandaleigh went to Buffy and Faith's closet and pulled out a black shirt that she suspected belonged to Faith. "You are just so easy to fuck with." She pulled the shirt over her head. It didn't quite fit since she was a few centimeters taller than both Slayers.

Buffy picked up the knife she had pulled out of the smirking woman and threw it at her. Zandaleigh caught it before it impaled her again. "You've got a bit of a temper don't you, Elizabeth? It's kind of sexy."

"Get out!" Faith and Buffy yelled in unison.

"I can understand when my company is not entirely desired." A smirk covered Zandaleigh's face. "But I really can't wait to see what kind of show you have planned for me for breakfast." She hurried out of the Slayers' bedroom before they decided to throw any of their other of myriad of weapons at her.

When Buffy finally left her bedroom she found Zandaleigh asleep on the couch with the television turned on to the Disney Channel.

"Zandaleigh?"

The former goddess rolled over determined to get away from the voice that kept on whispering her name.

"Zandaleigh get up."

A crimson colored left eye opened slowly and focused in on a short blonde woman who was holding out a cell phone.

"Zandaleigh I called Willow so you could tell her everything you knew?"

The right amethyst colored eye opened slowly, it too focusing in on the blonde woman that stood above. " Willow ?"

"My friend," Zandaleigh's gaze was still absent of comprehension. "The witch."

Zandaleigh blinked her eyes a couple of times and she slowly stretched out on the couch, the blanket that was covering her slid down her chest exposing her nude torso. When she looked back at Buffy the slayer's face had turned a soft shade of red. Buffy looked down at the floor next to the couch noticing that Zanaleigh's clothes were lying on the wooden floor. "Give me the phone," Zandaleigh ordered, currently unconcerned with her partial nudity.

Buffy did as she was told doing her best to keep her eyes glued to Zandaleigh's multi-colored eyes instead of the smooth coffee colored torso that was exposed to her. Zandaleigh took the phone with a smirk, having caught the slayer looking at her chest. "Wendy?" she said into the phone. "Yes, Willow, that's what I said isn't it?" There was a slight pause. "Who is that in the background?" More silence. "Kennedy who?" Zandaleigh yawned loudly. "She's can't be a slayer, Walta." The former goddess's free hand started playing with her dark wavy hair. "I don't care what spell you did, Wednesday, there is no way that Keefe is a slayer. Buffy and Faith are the only ones that have the essence and I know what I'm talking about because I'm here with the both of them right now. I can still see it in them, Faith more so since she hasn't died yet to pass it on."

Zandaleigh stopped playing with her hair and stretched out again, the blanket falling even lower on her body. "Okay, W-i-l-l-o-w, I understand what you're telling me, but I was alive when the first slayer was created so I know what the fuck I'm talking about. All you did, Ms. Witch Lady, is convert potential energy into actual energy. Your friend, Keelty, may act like a slayer and look like a slayer but she's not a real slayer. I'm sorry if that offends you. I know you're a very powerful mortal and I don't see a limit to your abilities, but the essence of the 'real' slayer cannot be altered by some mere spell. Only one slayer at any given moment can carry that essence, well two since Buffy was a special case."

The blanket finally could no longer cling onto Zandaleigh's skin and fell down completely exposing the woman's nude body. Zandaleigh watched as the sheet fell then gave a slight shrug. "Can we please get back to the point of this conversation, Willow ?" Zandaleigh laid back down on the couch. "Good. Buffy is concerned about you because your magical abilities have made you a bright shining target for evil doers. There are people that want to steal what it is you have. My advice to you is that you put a protection spell around you called, Zyoion. It will protect you from others who want to drain your powers. It's a subtle spell so anyone who tries to steal from you will run into it and leave their magical signature behind. If you trace it then you can maim and destroy those who messed with you."

Zandaleigh yawned again. "Don't underestimate yourself, witch. Sure it says only a demigod can perform the spell, but that's just like a warning on a medicine bottle that tells you take two capsules when you can actually safely take four." She turned her head to look over at Buffy who had long since disappeared when the blanket had finally fallen completely off of Zandaleigh's body. "Trust me, Willow , you really are strong enough. You have some god blood in your lineage, you'll be fine."

She listened to Willow for a few moments looking, for all intents and purposes, completely bored. "Just do the damn spell or you'll be overwhelmed by very powerful entities who will want to destroy you. When Buffy and Faith are free from their current situation then they will go to you and we will take care of everything else, and please no matter what you do keep your friend Kennedy away from anything that tries to harm you. She may be in well enough condition to kill a demon or two, but by no means is she strong enough to handle this type of thing." Zandaleigh hung up the phone not waiting and not caring about what Willow might have wanted to say in response. She slid off of the couch then reached down and picked her battered jeans off of the floor. She slid the worn material over her legs and then went looking for the shirt she had taken out of the Slayers' closet.

She walked into the kitchen and threw Buffy's phone back to her. " Willow should be good for a while. You might want to call her up though and reassure her that I'm completely right and whatever she thinks of doing alone would be completely wrong." Buffy nodded and immediately left to call Willow and talk to her friend in privacy. Zandaleigh watched the slayer walk away then took a seat at the table in the middle of the kitchen. She poured herself some orange juice and took a tentative sip.

Faith walked into the kitchen then, and casually took a seat across from Zandaleigh. She was still upset at the former goddess for the display she had put on in the bedroom was so picked up the juice carton and started reading the label on the back hoping that would somehow stop Zandaleigh from talking to her. "I don't like mortal food," the former goddess mentioned casually. "I'm glad immortality doesn't require me to eat your food or drink your foul tasting liquids."

"It does require you to sleep." Faith said, hoping she was pointing out a weakness that the woman didn't feel like talking about.

Zandaleigh nodded slightly. "It does at times, but that's only when I drain my lingering godlike powers. I need the time to recuperate."

Buffy walked back into the kitchen looking somewhat satisfied from her brief conversation with Willow. "When you said that Kennedy wasn't a real slayer what did you mean?" Buffy asked as she joined Faith and Zandaleigh at the kitchen table.

Zandaleigh took another sip of the orange juice she had poured for herself, more disappointed in the second sip than the first. "I meant exactly what I said," she eventually answered. "The essence still stays inside of the two of you. No spell can change that, no matter how powerful. All your friend Wendell accomplished is turning the Potentials slayer energy into a stronger form of energy. Your Potentials may look and act like slayers but they certainly don't smell like them."

"Why do you know so much about us?" Faith asked. "I thought you were busy trying to kill your Mom."

"I was a full god once, little Faith." Zandaleigh smiled but it wasn't an entirely pleasant one. "I know more about the Slayer essence than you do. I know who created you and how they did it and I know how to undo it."

"Are you trying to threaten us?" Buffy leaned in closer to Zandaleigh. She wanted to make sure that the woman knew that she wasn't afraid of her, even though Buffy was kind of afraid of her. She could feel the power that flowed off of the woman. It was a lot different than how Glory felt. It felt like Zandaleigh's power was deeper maybe, or older.

Zandaleigh leaned in closer to Buffy as well. She was invading the slayer's personal space, but Buffy didn't pull away. "I'm only stating the facts, Buffy." Her voice was smooth and suddenly sounded slightly melodic even. "I would never threaten you."

"You wouldn't threaten me," Buffy mimicked.

"Wha-" Faith started to stay but was soon captured by Zandaleigh's gaze and the slayer was unable to remember what it was she wanted to say so instead repeated what Buffy had said. "You wouldn't threaten me."

Zandaleigh laughed loudly, when she calmed down she drank the rest of her orange juice while Buffy and Faith stared captivated by the former goddess's every movement. Zandaleigh laughed again then shook her head slightly. "Slayers," she said mostly to herself, "so damn easy to control. Yet, you have some of the greatest evil running away from you in fear. You're the two that were responsible for defeating The First? Well, it was apparently a lot weaker than everyone else thought. Still," she sighed heavily, "I need you to kill my mother." She shook her head again then got up from her seat and put her empty glass into the sink.

She sat back down at the table then reached out and placed her hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Are you okay, Buffy," Zandaleigh sounded genuinely concerned. "Buffy?"

Buffy blinked a couple of times and looked around, quickly noticing that Faith looked as lost as she was. "What happened?" Buffy asked. "What were you saying?"

"Oh," Zandaleigh gave both Faith and Buffy a friendly smile, "I was just saying that I didn't mean for you to take what I was saying as a threat. I just wanted to share with you both what I knew about slayers and the potentials who you ignorantly thought were now full slayers."

"Yes, I remember," Buffy replied softly. "I'm sorry sometimes I zone out like that."

"Please don't apologize."

"So you're sayin' that Buffy and me are still the only two slayers?" Faith asked not entirely sure what had been going on the moment before, but unwilling to sound stupid by admitting she hadn't been paying attention to Buffy and Zandeleigh's conversation.

Zandaleigh shrugged. "That's the gist of it, but I don't think you should be too worried about it. All it means is that you two will still be targeted by the greatest of evils because you're the real deal and not a well-made knockoff."

"What about your mother?" Buffy asked already running questions she wanted to ask Giles through her head. Did he know that the potential slayers weren't 'real' slayers yet?

"My mother," Zandaleigh's tone became heavy. "Is sadly not a knockoff. She'll need to be taken care of quickly. Tonight, I'll take you to the caves she's amassing her evil army in so that you can scope out the place. It's vital that you remember that while I can help you with her minions I can't really help when it comes to my mother. I can slow her down and hold her back, but I can't harm her. She, however, can kill me with the sword of Fasfus that she carries around with her. It's a very ancient and powerful weapon so that means that if it can kill me, it can definitely kill you. So please stay clear of it. To kill me she has to cut off my head with it, to kill you two she would only have to cut you once."

"Can the sword be destroyed?" Buffy remembered a few weapons she'd run into in the past that could be destroyed by some of Willow 's mojo.

Zandaleigh nodded. "Anything can be destroyed; it's just that some things are harder than others. To destroy Fasfus you have to obtain lava from a volcano under the Atlantic Ocean . The lava will melt the sword because the god who created that specific volcano also created Fasfus. He forged the two together in case his sword ever got in the hands of evil."

"Can you get his lava?" Faith asked thinking she already knew the answer.

"When I was still a god, then perhaps I could have but now I certainly can't. The lava can injure me just as much as the sword can."

Zandaleigh continued to prepare the Slayers as much as possible for what they could expect when they met up with her mother. She kept reminding the two mortals in front of her that they were indeed mortal and that Thema, her mother, wouldn't feel sorry about killing them. Once she felt the slayers were prepared enough she told them to get in whatever battle gear they had so that she could show the Slayers were her mother would be resting. She doubted they would have a chance to kill her yet, but she couldn't quite bite down on her enthusiasm at thinking that perhaps the true Slayers were strong enough to get rid of her mother in one fell swoop. That would certainly make Zandaleigh happier than anything else in the world.


	4. Chapter 3

**All Disclaimers in Chapter 1**

Chapter 3

Unable to bring themselves to completely trust or partially trust the former goddess that had invaded their lives, Buffy and Faith refused to allow Zandaleigh to take them to where the immortal promised her mother was hiding out. Instead, they were convinced that they could find out more information from the minions that would be running around during their sweeps, if in fact Zandaleigh's mother did have any dastardly plans.

Zandaleigh took their news of mistrust without surprise and only replied flippantly that, "people usually do have to die before I'm believed." She followed the Slayers during their sweeps and stayed well out of their way. She even remained all-knowingly silent until the trail of vampires led them to an old abandoned house at the edge of the town.

"What's that smell?" Buffy asked as she carefully pushed open the front door.

"It's death," Zandaleigh answered as she pushed ahead of Buffy, not caring whether the threat of danger loomed upon them or not. "This is what my mother does." She motioned to the front room of the house.

The slayers had walked into a lot of horrendous scenes in their lives as the fighters against evil, but what greeted them in the house was worse than the rest combined. The walls, the ceilings, the floors, every surface available were covered in blood and sliced flesh. The blood had become sticky and as they walked further into the house their shoes made a horrendous squishing sound.

"Why?" Buffy's voice rebounded off of the walls and fell harshly into the room.

"All the evil you've run into has had a purpose, right? They want the world, they want entertainment, right?" Zandaleigh didn't wait for either of the slayers to respond. "Well mother's motives are fairly simple. She likes to see suffering and pain and she has always understood that gaining power of the world was a long shot. She just wants to have her fun where she can and while she can."

"Kind of like you, huh?" Faith knew that probably wasn't the least hostile thing she could have said, but she was still angry at Zandaleigh for messing with her earlier.

"You've never been afraid to find the fun, have you Faith." Zandaleigh didn't bother to remove her attention from the aftermath of the massacre that surrounded them. "Always more of an instant gratification type instead of a level-headed thinker. Ultimately you're a waist of a soul and a waist of the power you've been privileged to gain, a nobody with too much bravado and not enough substance."

"Hey!" Buffy decided to speak up when she realized Faith wasn't going to.

Zandaleigh ignored her but finally focused her attention on Faith. "Don't try to hurt me with words, Faith, because I'll win every time."

"Look, we just need to focus on what went on here," Buffy interjected again. "I think it's way beyond obvious that we're never going to be best friends."

Zandaleigh licked her lips while her eyes roamed over Buffy's body. "You don't want to be my friend?"

It had taken Faith years of introspection and meditation to gain full control over her own instinct to impulsively act out without regard. Faith had matured and somehow along the way she had become a stable adult who learned from her past. Perhaps that was why she was so surprised when she felt her body leaping at Zandaleigh's taller form more than ready to tear the former goddess apart.

Zandaleigh had anticipated Faith's action, more than anticipated actually. She expected it. She wanted it just so she could prove to the mortals that she was indeed a very serious person. Faith swung her fist out towards Zandaleigh's face and Zandaleigh caught it without flinching. She used Faith's own momentum to swing her into one of the bloodied walls. Faith body bounced down to the floor.

Buffy went to Faith and helped her up. Zandaleigh smiled at them both. "All fun and games aside," she said as she watched them callously, "I'm quite serious when it comes to my mother, you understand. I let people see her," she waved her hand around the room, "work before I normally take charge of the situation. Most people don't trust me, you see. They doubt my sincerity because they have ways of convincing themselves that I'm either working with or for her. They have these ill conceptions that they can use my mother's actions as a venue for judging me. It's like I've mentioned more than once, people usually have to die before I'm taken seriously. So pull yourselves together Slayers and get serious about this." She turned away from them and then walked out of the house. She was done with them for the moment.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked Faith as she did a quick examination of her lover's body.

"Fine," Faith replied even though she could feel a deep bruise forming on her back and was relatively sure that Zandaleigh might have broken a few bones in her hand when the immortal caught her fist.

"What do you want to do?" Buffy took Faith's weight onto herself, not needing Faith to admit to her pain to realize that it was there.

"Right now," Faith gasped as she took a tentative step, "I think I want to try and kill her again."

"I'm not completely opposed," Buffy agreed. "But what about Zandaleigh's mother?"

When they had moved to New Mexico and settled down and started to do slayer stuff again, Buffy realized that she was more than tired of making unilateral decisions about the actions they should take when facing a new Big Bad. She was done with being the one in charge, the one with the burden of all the responsibility. That's why she consulted Faith now, even though she knew that the right thing to do and that the best thing to do would be to take Zandaleigh seriously and get ready to fight some ancient god that no one cared about anymore. Buffy's decision was already sixty-five percent decided in her head, but she wasn't willing to decide it all on her own.

In this relationship, she wasn't the leader. Here, things weren't centered on her and what she was going to do. Here, in this small town in the middle of the desert, she was in a partnership and that meant that if Faith didn't want to pursue this then they wouldn't. They would leave Zandaleigh to solve her own problems.

But like Buffy had developed a sense of democratic thinking, Faith had long sense developed a sense of duty that went beyond the excitement of being a hero. "We've gotta take her on, B."

Eventually they made it out of the house, where Zandaleigh was comfortably waiting sitting against the curb. She turned and looked at the two Slayers already knowing that they had taken her advice and gotten serious about her mother. "Do you want me to heal your back, Faith, or are you into the pain?"

"You can do that?" Buffy asked somewhat surprised, although not quite sure why she was. She had seen stranger things.

"I'm not just full of evil and destruction, you know. I did have a father and he was a very good person. He did his best to help mortals and they certainly never made it easy for him. My mother killed him." Zandaleigh moved closer to the Slayers. "So now you have my motive for revenge. Do you want help with your back or not, Faith?"

The immortal looked uncomfortably close to displaying an actual emotion, and Faith could easily see something she could exploit. "Yeah. It'd be good if I could walk without the shooting pains." Faith was going soft and she knew it.

"Alright," Zandaleigh took a careful step closer to Faith, keeping her eyes on Buffy to make sure that the older slayer wasn't going to try and attack her. She pushed up Faith's shirt and exposed the massive bruise that had settled on the base of Faith's spine. "This won't hurt," Zandaleigh told Buffy, "but it does have side effects."

"What?" Faith asked.

Zandaleigh smirked. "Well," she drew out the word, "you'll feel kind of euphoric. Don't worry," Zandaleigh pressed her hands against Faith's back, "I'll leave you two alone when I'm done." A red burst of energy flew from Zandaleigh's hands into Faith's back.

"Fuck," Faith whispered but it wasn't from pain.

Buffy easily recognized Faith's tone and cast a suspicious eye towards Zandaleigh. Zandaleigh winked at her and pulled her hand away from Faith. The bruise had already disappeared. "Don't say I never gave you any gifts." Zandaleigh said then quickly pressed her hand to Buffy's neck with the same red glow covering her fingers.

"God," Buffy gasped as Zandaleigh's fingers made contact with her skin.

"I'll see you two later." Zandaleigh pulled away from them both. "Be careful." The two slayers jumped at each other and Zandaleigh was fairly certain that at least one of them had growled. "Or not." She straightened her shirt as she cast a long glance at the two mortals in front of her. She shook her head once then walked away from them, knowing that eventually their location would seep into their haze and they would move to a better area.

Zandaleigh walked through the empty streets until she stood in front of an opening to a cave. Five vampires stood guard and upon spotting Zandaleigh's form they readied to attack. Zandaleigh's eyes flashed and she reached for the nearest vampire tearing his head right from his body. "Back off!" She told the remaining four. "I don't like worthless demons like you threatening me."

"You're the Honored One," The smartest of the bunch quickly realized. "Our master has been expecting you."

"Well you can tell her she'll need to wait longer. I'm not ready to kill her yet." She turned away from the cave and walked away from the vampires and the presence of her mother that she could feel pulling at her. She walked back down into the empty highway streets and continued to walk away from her only flesh.

Meanwhile, whatever Zandaleigh had infused the slayers with had long since worn off and the two found themselves naked, bruised, scratched, and satiated in the middle of an empty field not too far away from the prying eyes of a nearby rattlesnake. They could barely remember what they had done or how they had gotten to their current location. They felt hung over and each had a headache that made their vision blurry and their sense of balance altered.

Zandaleigh had done this to them. She had been able to control them and whether their experience had been pleasurable or not, they now had a much better understanding of how dangerous the former goddess actually was. She was a lot more than an annoying idiot who liked to play a joke every once in a while.

"We need to go back home," Buffy said as she pulled her shirt back over her head, unconcerned with trying to find her bra first.

"Yeah," Faith finished buttoning up her jeans.

"How's your back?" Buffy stood up and put her arms around Faith. "I didn't--we didn't--does it hurt?"

"It's fine." Faith forced a smile on her face. "Feels stronger even. Like she healed everything."

"I know what you mean," Buffy admitted having noticed that a few places on her body that had begun to ache over the years suddenly didn't ache so much anymore.

Faith pulled out of Buffy's hold. "Let's just get home, okay?"

Buffy knew not to be hurt by the distance that Faith put between them. She understood that Zandaleigh had somehow managed to frighten Faith and that her partner was feeling a little weaker and more exposed than normal, but Buffy wasn't left unaffected. Zandaleigh kind of scared her now too. "We can handle this, Faith." She said as she pulled on her own pants.

"Of course we can," Faith forced another smile. "Nothing ever beats us, B." She believed what she was saying, to a certain extent, but she hadn't quite been able to get over their last big fight with their last big Big Bad. She had been looking forward to living out her life with Buffy in this small middle of nowhere fighting demons that didn't have a lot of initiative. Faith liked living this life, where they could talk about the future as if it were actually going to happen instead of like it was just something they wished for but never actually expected.

But apparently, since all the dust had settled and evil started to want to get active again, it turned out that she and Buffy were still the only 'real' slayers around and that for some reason or another meant that evil just wanted to get a chance to fuck with them as often as possible. So that also consequently meant that they really couldn't alter destiny. It just wasn't in their power to do so. Sure, they could push it around a little bit and change its appeal but they couldn't really change it nor could they run from it.

"I love you, Buffy."

Buffy stumbled as she was putting back on her boot. She looked Faith over carefully before replying, "I love you too." She wanted to ask questions and wanted to know what exactly it was going through Faith's head, but she kept her silence. She kept it because she wasn't entirely sure that she was ready to talk about what exactly it was she was feeling and she certainly would have to if she was going to demand that of Faith.

They finished getting dressed and slowly walked back to their empty house, their unwanted guest not yet having returned. They showered together and cleaned up each other's wounds then went to bed and lied in each other's arms. Maybe tomorrow they would talk about having to save the world being forced back under their sphere of responsibility. Maybe they would talk about how to beat a god. Either way, as they each fell asleep they silently hoped there would be no need to talk about any of that. They hoped that somehow, Zandaleigh's mother would just disappear.


End file.
